Gong Linna vocals

1. Yun Zhong Jun (Lao Luo )

Bang on a Can All-Stars: 2. Into the Clouds (Julia Wolfe )

Ashley Bathgate cello
Robert Black bass
Vicky Chow piano
David Cossin percussion
Mark Stewart electric guitar
Ken Thomson clarinet & bass clarinet
3. River (Michael Gordon )
4. He Bo (Lao Luo )
5. Girl with Mountain (David Lang )
6. Shan Gui (Lao Luo )
7. Tan Te (Lao Luo )

CANTALOUPE MUSIC IS FROM THE CREATORS OF BANG ON A CAN.

P&C 2017 Cantaloupe Music, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
Cantaloupe Music, 80 Hanson Place, Suite 301, Brooklyn, NY 11217
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Produced by David Cossin and Rob Friedman
Recorded by David Cossin and Rob Friedman at Water Music, Hoboken, NJ, June 2015
Assisted by Gabriel Bento / Edited by David Cossin
Mixed by Rob Friedman with David Cossin at littlelife studio, NYC
Mastered by Rob Friedman

Cloud River Mountain by Lao Luo, Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe was
commissioned for the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Gong Linna with generous support from
Maria and Robert A. Skirnick and Arts Brookfield for the 2015 Bang on a Can Marathon.
Yun Zhong Jun
music: Lao Luo
lyrics: Qu Yuan (translation by David Hawkes)

We have bathed in orchid water and washed our hair with perfumes
And dresses ourselves like flowers in embroidered clothing.
The god has halted, swaying, above us,
Shining with a persistent radiance.
He is going to rest in the House of Life.
His brightness is like that of the sun and moon.
In his dragon chariot, dresses in imperial splendor,
Now he flies off to wander round the sky.
The god had just descended in bright majesty,
When off in a whirl he soared again, far into the clouds.
He looks down on Ji-zhou, and the lands beyond it;
There is no place in the world that he does not pass over.
Thinking of that lord makes me sigh
And afflicts my heart with a grievous longing.

Into the Clouds
music: Julia Wolfe
lyrics: adapted by Julia Wolfe after Qu Yuans Yun Zhong Jun

We bathed and washed our hair

and dressed ourselves
Like flowers
Swaying
Sun and moon round the sky
In a whirl
Into the clouds
There is no place
Makes me sigh
River
music: Michael Gordon
lyrics: adapted by Michael Gordon
after Qu Yuans He Bo

By Nine Mouths of the river

I wander with you
Dragons draw my chariot.
Climbing Kunlun mountain
I look back to distant shores
My heart leaps wildly
Riding a white turtle
Chasing spotted fish
Let me play with you
while river waters rush
He Bo
music: Lao Luo
lyrics: Qu Yuan (translation by David Hawkes)

I wander with you by the Nine Mouths of the river

When the storm wind rises and slashes up the waves.
I ride a water chariot with a canopy of lotus;
Two dragons draw it, between two water serpents.

I climb the Kunlun mountain and look over the four quarters,
And my heart leaps up in me, beating wildly.
Though the day will soon end; I forget to go in my pleasure:
Longingly I look back to that distant shore.
Of fish-scale his place is, with a dragon-scale hall;
Purple cowrie gate-towers; rooms of pearl.
And what does the god do, down there in the water?

Riding a white turtle, he chases the spotted fishes.

Let me play with you among the rivers islets,
While the swollen waters come rushing on their way!
Eastward your journey, with hands stately folded,
Bearing your fair bride to the southern harbor.
The waves come racing up to meet me,
And shoals of fishes are my bridal train.

girl with mountain
music: David Lang
lyrics: adapted by David Lang
after Qu Yuans Shan Gui

Girl with mountain

I am hiding
On the mountain
All alone
I see
And I forget
That I must leave
Shan Gui
music: Lao Luo
lyrics: Qu Yuan (translation by Christopher Evans)

It seems theres someone in a fold in the hills,

wearing a fig-leaf cloak and a belt of dodder,
She looks slyly at me with a hint of a smile,
Do you find me attractive, graceful, alluring?
Driving red leopards, striped wildcats following,
her magnolia-decked chariot with cassia banners,
Dressed in fern and wild ginger, she gathers sweet herbs to give to her love.

I find myself in a hidden grove where the sky is never seen,

where paths are hazardous and steep and make me late to meet you.
I stand alone on top of a hill with turbulent clouds below,
Stillness, gloom, turning day into night, east wind bringing the goddesss rain
Held back by the beauty, I quietly forget to return, and
I pick Three-Flowerings among the hill, and the arrowroot among the heaped rocks.
Wanting my fair lady I forget I must leave, while she thinks of me but has no leisure.

The girl in the mountains smells sweetly of pollia,

and drinks from stony springs and rests beneath pines
She thinks of me, but is doubting, aloof.
Thunder roars, the sky darkens with rain,
simians chatter and then call in the night,
Winds moan, trees rustle and I think of my lady and stand there alone.

Tan Te
music & vocal colors: Lao Luo

Qu Yuan (c.340-278 BCE) was a Chinese poet and minister who lived during
the Warring States period. His poems were first published during the Han
Dynasty, in the anthology Chu Ci (Songs of the South).

Translations originally published in The Songs of the South: An Anthology of

Ancient Chinese Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (edited by David Hawkes
for Penguin Classics, 1985).

Into the Clouds, River and girl with mountain

published by Red Poppy, Ltd. (ASCAP).
Yun Zhong Jun, He Bo, Shan Gui and Tan Te
published by GongLuo (copyright control).

Executive producers: Michael Gordon, David Lang,

Kenny Savelson and Julia Wolfe
Label manager: Bill Murphy
Cantaloupe sales manager: Adam Cuthbert
Editorial consultant: Joanna C. Lee

Art direction + graphic design: Christopher Kornmann for Spit + Image

Calligraphy (cover): Patrick P. Lee

Special thanks to Debra Simon, Andrew Cotton, Christina Jensen,

Joanna Lee, Rob Grenoble, Adam Cuthbert, Aaron Garcia, Sruly Lazaros,
Mike McCurdy, Bill Murphy, Tim Thomas and Philippa Thompson.

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